The Crown of Gilded Bones (Blood and..

“Liar!” I shouted. “Casteel had nothing to do with what
happened.”
“I never said Casteel did. I know it wasn’t him, even
though I never saw the face behind the cloak and hood he
wore when he came to that inn,” Alastir replied. “Other
things were at play that night. Darkness that moved outside
of my influence. I was there to help your parents. That is
what I did back then. But when they told me what you could
do, I knew—I knew who you came from. So, when the
darkness came to those doors, I let it in.”
I didn’t know if I believed him or if it even mattered if
my parents had died by his hand or not. He had still played
a role in my parents’ deaths, leaving Ian and I and everyone
else there to die, as well. Leaving me to be torn apart by
claws and teeth. That pain. That night. It had haunted me
for my entire life.
A breath shuddered out of him. “I let it in and walked
away, believing that the dirtiest part of my duty was done.
But you survived, and here we are.”
“Yes.” The word rumbled out of me in a growl that
would’ve surprised me at any other time. “Here I am. Now
what? You going to kill me? Or leave me here to rot?”
“If only it were that simple.” He leaned on one hand.
“And I would never leave you here to die such a slow death.
That is far too barbaric.”
Did he even hear himself? “And chaining me in these
bones and roots isn’t? Leaving my family and me to die isn’t
barbaric?”
“It was a necessary evil,” he stated. “But we can’t just
kill you. Maybe before you arrived—before the Primal notam
locked into place. But not now. The wolven have seen you.
They’ve felt you.”
My gaze sharpened on him. “Why didn’t you change like
the others? The way the King and Queen spoke, it was like
they had no control over their forms. They had to answer
my call.”